Afar
by Lilly Whitefield
Summary: The Ministry decides to host a masquerade ball at Hogwarts. As a member of the Golden Trio, Hermione Granger is invited. On the same morning she receives the invitation, a mysterious note arrives, too. Who is it from? Hermione finds she rather wants to know; as a forever single Transfiguration professor, she needs a date. Rated M for later chapters.
1. The Invitation

**Hello all! I've decided to start a story! Hopefully I will update once a week, most likely Saturday or Sunday. I love reviews, especially constructive criticism!**

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Chapter One: Invitation

Hermione, as much as she enjoyed her work as a professor at Hogwarts, did not enjoy the hours. More specifically the waking up at five-thirty every weekday. It was a rather unfortunate drawback of her dream job, but, being Hermione Granger, she never showed any discontent.

Of course, if she were to be woken up five minutes early by an obnoxious owl tapping on the glass to her quarters, she would be a quite unhappy Hermione.

"Ruddy birds..." she muttered to herself as she crawled out of her nice, warm, fluffy sheets to set her feet upon the cold, hard stone floor of her bedroom. "Damn things need to learn to stop waking me up exactly five minutes before I'm supposed to." She lit her wand, walked over to the window (still pitch black outside, she noticed with a grimace), lifted the latch, and opened the glass to let the bloody bird into the room. Though she was scowling at it, she noticed it was a rather beautiful bird; it had black feathers, but they shone a strangely wonderful green when the light of her wand hit them. The owl held an envelope in its beak, so she snatched it away and shooed the thing back out before it asked for a treat. Hermione tried to see where it flew to, but it being a black bird flying into the utter blackness before sunrise, she quickly realized it was rather foolish to do so.

The envelope, she observed, was silver, and read "To Miss Hermione Granger" in beautiful script, and in violet ink, and there were violet curlicues drawn in the corners. Just as she turned it around to break the pretty purple wax seal, her wand started to play music and vibrate. Her alarm. Bloody good it did me today, she thought. She silenced the alarm and flicked her wand to illuminate the candles in her room.

She managed to break the seal and pull out the creamy white paper inside before she got the floo call.

Cursing to herself, she set the envelope and paper on her nightstand and stomped to the fireplace in her living room to answer the call.

It was Ginny's head that popped up. "What could you possibly want at this ungodly hour?" growled Hermione.

"Did you get one too? Isn't it exciting? Hogwart's hasn't seen anything like this since the Yule Ball!" Ginny was obviously unaffected by mornings.

"What are you talking about, Gin?"

"Didn't you receive an invitation this morning?"

"I received an envelope this morning, but I have yet to read it because I seem to keep getting interrupted."

"Well go read it! I'll wait right here. No wait! Read it in front of me. I want to see your reaction."

"Ginny, I highly doubt that anything could get any sort of reaction other than annoyed or pissed off out of me this morning. But fine, I'll be right back."

Hermione walked into her room and grabbed the envelope and letter. She huffed and harrumphed her way back to the living room, looked at the floo to make sure Ginny was still there, and began to read:

Dear Miss Granger,

We at the Ministry would like to cordially invite you to the 1st Annual Celebration Masquerade Ball. The Ministry of Magic wishes to commemorate the second anniversary of the end of the Second Wizarding War with a grand party. This is a black-tie event, and masks will be required. The Celebration Masquerade Ball will take place on May the Second, 2000, in the Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We sincerely hope you will be able to attend. Please RSVP by April the Second by sending a response to the Ministry.

Warmest regards,

Kingsley Shacklebolt

Minister of Magic

As Hermione read, her face lit up. A ball! A real masquerade ball! With ball gowns and waltzing with mysterious men and wonder at who everyone is! Oh this is just marvelous! If anything could fix Hermione's morning mood (besides tea), this is it!

"I told you! It's absolutely wonderful, isn't it?" exclaimed Ginny.

"Ginny, this is great! Oh my gods, I need to find a gown! Perhaps I should find the mask first, then the gown, it may be easier to match. Then I need shoes, and of course jewelery, and—"

"Hermione, take a breath!" She didn't realize that she hadn't taken one yet. She was quite breathless at the moment, actually. "We have two months to plan out everything, Hermione. Stop being such a worry-wart!" Ginny reasoned.

"Can't help it, Gin. It's what made me who I am today," Hermione said with a large smile on her face.

"What, you mean a lonely Transfiguration professor?"

"Yes—I mean—no, wait—oh, shut it Gin! Just because you scored the-boy-who-lived, who just so happens to be the boy you've been in love with since you were ten, does not mean you have any right to poke fun at your forever single best friend," Hermione said.

"'Course it does. It's in the code. Anyway, I have to go. Harry's waking up, and he's taking me out to breakfast, for once. Bye, Hermione!" Ginny said.

"Bye, Ginny." Ginny's head disappeared from the floo, so Hermione traveled to her kitchen to make herself some toast and tea before she had to get ready for the day. She could go to the Great Hall with all of the other teachers, but, as it has been said, Hermione hates mornings, and she didn't really want to scare her students. Plus her hair was still a rat's nest from sleeping on it the night before.

As she was about to dig in to her toast with raspberry jelly, a steaming mug of Earl Grey beside her plate, she heard more bloody tapping from her bedroom window.

"I'm will start murdering every stupid owl that taps its stupid beak on my stupid window before seven," she muttered as she flopped her feet to the bedroom.

This owl was white, but it had strange black eyes that seemed to know everything about you with just one look. In it's beak was a simple white envelope, addressed "Hermione". It was probably from Ron, requesting to go to the masquerade with her. He really needs to stop, thought Hermione. I wish he could take a hint. I've only denied him about fifteen times.

She took the envelope and the discontenting bird flew from her windowsill. As she went to open it, she had a feeling that it wasn't from Ron. He normally uses plain parchment when he writes to her to ask her out, but this was very fine paper with rich black ink. Hermione didn't recognize the handwriting either; it was rather pretty, whereas Ron's was like chicken-scratch. She broke the simple black seal, and was surprised to find only this:

I loved someone just like you once.

I threw her away from me.

I've been given a second chance.

This I can clearly see.

What was this? Who was this from? She had never had a secret admirer before. Or maybe it was a stalker...

Hermione pondered for a moment, but suddenly noticed the time, and forgot. She had eight minutes to prepare herself for her classes.

Oh bloody hell.

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**I'm trying to decide if I should make it known in the next chapter who her admirer is. Leave a review with your thoughts :D**


	2. The List

**Hello everyone! I loved all of my amazing reviews and favorites and follows for this story! I'm so happy that people like it! I've decided that in order to move the plot along at a reasonable pace, I won't be telling you who the admirer is until the end. Possibly when the story is over I might make a companion fic of the admirer's point of view. **

**Also, I've decided that everyone that died from the fifth book onward, minus Dumbledore, and one other person, is alive. (I love him, honestly, but it was needed for Hermione to have her job.) I have also decided to kill off one person, just because it adds to the suspense :P  
**

**As always, constructive criticism is always welcome!  
**

**And, because I forgot it last time: I only own the plot, everything else belongs to whomever it is supposed to.  
**

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Chapter 2: The List

Hermione whipped her curly mush pile into a bun that very quickly began to fall out, swished some mouthwash around in her mouth, threw on a skirt and a slightly wrinkled blouse, grabbed her wand that she suddenly remembered she could have used to get ready (she tended to lapse into her muggle tendencies when rushed or stressed), flew out her door, and sprinted to her classroom.

Class was to begin just as she arrived, so she decided to have some fun and pull a Professor Snape. She flung the doors open with great bravado and put a frown on her face. The first years she taught on Thursday mornings knew that she was more of an evening person, so it was no surprise when she walked in looking like she wanted to kill everything.

"Everyone open your books to Chapter Eleven: Exaequet Acus. Today I will begin to teach you how to turn matchsticks into needles."

Hermione continued with the lesson, and after only half of the allotted class time, gave the children their homework. "You must write eight inches on the process of transfiguration. It's due by next class. You are dismissed."

The students were thoroughly surprised. Professor Granger never allowed them to leave early, much less an hour early! Obviously something was wrong, but being mere first years they weren't at any liberty to ask. So, confused as they were, the children left the classroom to let Hermione swim in her thoughts.

_Who could that odd note have been from?_ She thought. _It couldn't have been Ron. He's too dim to have come up with even that simple rhyme. _Hermione pondered for a few minutes. After wondering about who it was, she realized she was going about it wrong; she needed to make a list.

She began by thinking of the men she knew had loved someone and lost them in the war. _Bill Weasley._ Unfortunately for Bill, Fleur had been hit by a spell that had knocked her into a crumbling wall during the Battle of Hogwarts. She remembered Tonks and wrote down _Remus Lupin_. Poor Remus was having a rough time of raising Teddy without his Dora. Teddy looked exactly like a little Tonks, only with turquoise hair, rather than pink. _Neville Longbottom, _she added. She supposed it wasn't exactly the same kind of love as the others, but Neville did love his Gran, who passed away shortly after the war ended. She thought a bit longer, then wrote down _Severus Snape. _He did lose someone in a war, but the First Wizarding War, rather than the Second. She still found it rather odd that Professor Snape was in

love with Harry's mum when he was younger, almost as odd as she found it to call him by his first name when she saw him in the halls.

She figured she should write down some names of men that she didn't know if they may have loved someone like her once, but she didn't know if they did either. _Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas, Viktor Krum, _and _Cormac McLaggen _were added to the list. And what the hell, so were _Draco Malfoy _and _Blaise Zabini _for good measure.

Right. Now to wait for more clues.

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When Hermione went to the Great Hall for lunch, the students were hyped up about the news of the masquerade, though no students were allowed at the event. She took her place at the Head Table, next to Remus, who took up the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor after the war, mostly to take his mind off of Dora. He also accepted the Head of Gryffindor House position, which, along with taking care of a two-year-old, used up the majority of his time. On Hermione's other side was Minerva. She became Headmistress when Professor Snape stepped down to become the Potions professor again.

"Good afternoon, Hermione!" Remus said as he was wrestling Teddy into his lap so that he may eat some of the beef stew the house elves had prepared for today. "How has your day been thus far? Oh Teddy, no!" Teddy had spilled a large spoonful of the stew onto Remus' trousers. Thankfully, being a wizard and all, Remus just had to cast a spell and they were clean again.

Hermione wondered if she should mention the note. If she did, she could gauge his reaction; if she didn't, it would still be a secret and she could continue to figure this out on her own. "Horribly, actually. Not five minutes before my alarm was to go off, that bloody owl taps on my window to deliver the invitation to the masquerade. While it was a fairly good reason to be woken up, the Ministry could have sent the owl a bit later on in the day."

"Completely agree with you, Hermione," Remus said. Teddy was currently reaching for Professor Snape, who sat on the other side of Remus, and Snape didn't look very happy about it. "The owl woke up Teddy an hour before he usually does, so I had to get myself ready while tending to him this morning. It's very difficult to shower and entertain a toddler at the same time." Teddy had made his way off of Remus' lap and onto Snape's, and Snape had a very large scowl on his face.

"Remus, please learn to control your son. Or rather, your demon child," said Professor Snape as he picked up Teddy and set him on the ground on his feet. Teddy promptly began to run about in circles.

"Bloody hell, he woke up an hour early and he still has the energy to run in circles," Hermione said.

"You're telling me. Alright Ted, let's go put you down for your nap. Or try to, anyway," Remus said. He chased his son to the exit and down the hall to his rooms.

"My heart goes out to that poor man," sighed Minerva. "He cannot catch a break. First Dora, now a whirlwind of a son along with an incredibly tiring job. I wish he could find someone to love him again so he might get over his depression."

_He just might have,_ mused Hermione. "I hope so too, Minerva. He deserves to love someone, and be loved in return."

Professor Snape stood abruptly. "I find now to be a fine time to make my exit. Good day Minerva, Miss Granger." Snape never could handle all of that sappy love stuff. He could never call Hermione anything but "Miss Granger" after seven years of teaching her, either.

"Goodbye, Professor," said Hermione as Minerva said, "Goodbye, Severus."

Hermione parted ways with the Headmistress soon after, and made her way to her office in her classroom to prepare for her seventh year class.

She was beginning to think that figuring out who her secret admirer is before the Masquerade Ball was going to be much harder than she thought.

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**"Exaequet Acus" literally meants "matches needle" in Latin. Google Translate :P**

**As always, reviews are much appreciated!  
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**And I'm looking for awesome masquerade costume ideas for various characters. If you have any ideas, leave a review! Pretty please?  
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**~Lily Whitefield  
**


	3. Tea

**I know. I'm evil. I blame severe writers block and a bunch of reality happening. The good news is I'm a senior in high school so I will be graduating soon so over the summer expect tons of updates and new stories! **

**I also noticed I misspelled my pen name at the end of the last chapter. I am an idiot. **

**Please leave me a review! I love constructive criticism!**

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Chapter 3: Tea

Her Seventh Years were, as always, perfectly wonderful. Class went swimmingly, with only one minor accident. They were working on transfiguring certain body parts so they may disguise themselves if the need should arise, and a Hufflepuff boy enlarged his nose to such an extent that it required a potion to fix. She sent him to Madam Pomfrey, and class continued until the end of the school day.

"Your homework is to write six inches on facial transformation. Class dismissed," said Hermione. She was unusually distant today. For the most part she was cheerful with them, but her mind seemed elsewhere.

Hermione pulled out her list and stared at it.

_Bill Weasley_

_Remus Lupin_

_Neville Longbottom_

_Severus Snape_

_Seamus Finnegan_

_Dean Thomas_

_Victor Krum_

_Cormac McLaggen_

_Blaise Zabini_

_Draco Malfoy_

She crossed off Cormac. Even if it was him, would she really want to know?

Her eyes didn't leave that paper for a good half an hour. She stared at the names, contemplating every last possible reason they would be attracted to her, making sure to take the mysterious poem into account. She ended up crossing off Blaise, remembering his thing with Pansy Parkinson lately, before she realized it was time for her weekly tea with Neville.

Professor Sprout was another casualty of the war. Strangely she wasn't directly killed by someone, rather she was killed by the Whomping Willow. It was burning and she was trying to save it, but it sort of... smooshed her. Neville was quite distraught, Professor Sprout being his favorite teacher, so he took it upon himself to fill her position as Professor of Herbology. He studied with the temporary professor for a year, and took over when he left. He and Hermione became close friends in the past two years as both were the newest and youngest professors at the school. They decided to have tea every Thursday to have an escape from the children.

As Hermione made her way over to the greenhouses, she saw Draco sauntering past her. Remus often had him come in to his classes to give lectures and help with demonstrations. Though he had become considerably nicer in the past few months, he was still a bit of an arrogant git.

"Malfoy," she nodded.

"Granger," he smirked. He had this strange delusion that she was attracted to him. Which she was. But she would never admit it. And he was more of a pretty boy attractive that most women liked. Though Hermione did like pretty boys occasionally, the majority of the time she preferred masculine manly men.

She continued walking and spotted Bill's bright red hair near Hagrid's hut. As Hagrid continued to get older, he often asked for help from Bill. Hagrid did most of the lecturing, and Bill did most of the dangerous animal handling. He looked up and saw her. She waved and he waved back, forgetting he was holding a ferret for a hippogriff. Hermione laughed when the animal almost ripped his hand off trying to get to his food.

"Careful, Bill! You really don't need anymore scars!" she shouted across to him.

"Oh, shut it Hermione!" He was trying to convince the hippogriff he had no more food when she kept walking.

When she finally made it to the greenhouses, she found Neville covered in dirt and staring at a book.

"Are we still on for tea, or are you busy?" she asked.

He jumped and looked up. "Hermione! Is it really five-thirty? Just let me get cleaned up and we can head into my office."

He walked over to the hose and started with his hands, then moved on to his head. The water was black with dirt.

"How does one get so much dirt in their hair that when you run water through it it turns to mud?"

"I forget I have it on my hands, and I tend to grab my hair in frustration."

"I'm only joking, Neville. You do always seem to smell like the earth anymore, though."

When the water ran clear he cast a drying charm on his hair. "Let's go then."

He seemed oddly irritable. Neville was usually a happy-go-lucky optimistic guy. For him to be so blunt and short was strange. "Something wrong, Neville?" Hermione wondered.

"Just tired is all. I've had trouble sleeping for a bit now, but lately I find my mind drifting when I try to sleep."

They entered his office. She took a seat while he got out the teapot and two cups along with some Earl Grey. He boiled the water magically and poured the tea. Hermione plonked in two sugar cubes and a splash of milk. Neville nearly collapsed into his seat across from her with is teacup in hand. She figured now was as good a time as any to go prying for some answers. "Did you receive an invitation to the masquerade?"

"Yeah, this morning. Should be fun. They haven't had anything like this at Hogwarts for some time. Now I need to find a date, though."

She barely thought before she asked, "Would you ever consider going with me?"

He looked shocked. "You're kidding, right? You're too much like my sister. I think of you as one of my best friends. No offense, but best friends are more of a last resort."

Well bugger. She mentally crossed Neville off of her list. "Yeah, don't worry Neville, I'm just joking with you. Who do you think you will go with?"

He looked down and blushed. He never quite got over his shyness with women. "Well... you remember Hannah Abbott? She was a Hufflepuff in our year? She's the new landlady at the Leaky Cauldron. When I head to Diagon Alley on the weekends to pick up new plants and herbology books I always stop in to see her. She's become so beautiful, Hermione, and shes so smart, she can always make me laugh. I think I've fallen for her, and she doesn't even know I like her."

Hermione smiled, laughing internally at Neville's naivety. "If you think you've fallen in love with her, Neville, I'm positive she has the same idea."

Neville looked at her hopefully. "You sure, Hermione?"

"Positive."

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After an eventful dinner (Teddy decided it would be fun to imitate Severus, and being a metamorphmagus, it turned out quite comically), Hermione returned to her rooms so she could prepare her lessons for tomorrow. Just as her eyes were about to close at her desk in her study, she heard a tapping at the window.

Her head flew up in fury to see what it was. A white owl with mysterious black eyes stared at her with an envelope in it's beak.

She opened the latch on the window, lifted it up, and took the envelope from the owl. Again, it flew off without asking for a treat.

Her hands trembling, she opened the envelope.

Written on the same creamy white paper in the same rich black ink in the same elegant handwriting was:

I know you don't notice me

In the same way I notice you.

All I wish is for you to see

And to love me madly too.

Her life kept getting stranger and stranger. Hermione wasn't quite sure if it was scary, or exhilarating.

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**Thanks for reading! Please review! Who do you think it is? Am I doing well at keeping it a surprise?**

**Love, Lilly**


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